To visit it means to explore the wildest and most unspoiled part of Italy. Amidst natural beauties and archeological sites, one of the least known and more enchanting regionsby Sara Ficocelli

"There can only be one explanation for the tact and courtesy of the people of these towns: once, this was a Greek civilization”. This is how Cesare Pavese described the Calabrians, generous and unique people, proud of their region “even when rightly accused”, as Francesco Jerace used to say. “And victim”, according to Gianni Versace, the never forgotten designer who was proud of his Calabrian origins, of “an insane inferiority complex, due to the fact of living in a harsh and cruel reality”.Italy and the world are full of artists, men of letters and creative persons who have loved and defended Calabria. When people go to Calabria for the first time, they do so with preconceived ideas, but afterwards they can’t help going back all their lives, summer and winter. Bewitched by its wild and largely unexplored nature, made of sea and mountains, lakes, thermal springs, little towns where people still work silver and fabrics as they did centuries ago; spicy salami, savory cheeses, archaeological finds that retrace human history. The locals who are forced to leave to find work or to escape organized crime, speak of their native land with a pride and anger that gives the shivers. In their eyes, even after many years, you can still see a saudade that has little to do with melancholy and much with passion, a Calabrian saudade precisely.One of the most interesting aspects of the toe of Italy is the possibility to organize sea-mountain tourist itineraries: no other region allows you to go in just a few minutes from a Scandinavian-like landscape to a scorching beach. In Calabria this is normal. The mountains are almost entirely unknown and, from Sila, Aspromonte and Pollino to the border with Basilicata, they are all national park sites.

The park of Aspromonte forms part of the Southern Alps and its mountains are older than the Apennines, furrowed by “fiumare”, riverlets that are exuberant in the winter and that disappear in the summer, and populated by wolves, wild cats and otters. The park of Pollino, the largest in Italy, has the highest mountains of the South, almost always covered with snow in the winter, but is a feast for the eyes especially in the summer, amidst orchids, violets and gentians in the spring and the very rare orange lilies when it’s hot. Species that have become extinct in the rest of Italy, such as the golden eagle, still survive here and recently, even the griffon vulture has been reintroduced. And always here, nestled between the mountains like a jewel, is Papasidero, a town of 869 souls, famous for the Grotta del Romito, already inhabited (its rupestrian engravings are spectacular) 20 thousand years ago.But the park that is richer in biodiversity is the Sila National Park, so much that its symbol is the wolf. But no matter how fascinating animals in the flesh are, the real stars are the stone animals of Campana, the “giants of Sila”. The Elephant of Incavallicata is a brain teaser for scholars who still don’t understand whether it’s man made or the result of erosion. After all, a bit of mystery does not hurt.Definitely man-made are the three artificial lakes that dominate the area: Ampollino, Arvo and Ariamacina. Before these expanses of water, you feel as though you are in Finland, amidst waters and secular pines. Except that the beach is 40 minutes away. Other picturesque places are Camigliatello Silano, with its larch, beech and silver fir forest situated at 1300 meters above sea level, considered a hikers’ paradise, or Gambarie, in Aspromonte, famous for its ski slopes from which you can see the Aeolian islands and Mount Aetna, and for a very original glass fountain situated in the main square that creates the illusion of a mountain.Another must see place is Pentedattilo, which owes its name to the rock on which it was built, shaped like a hand. It’s a ghost town because it was abandoned for presumed subsidence of the ground and then rebuilt downstream decades ago. The remains are still there; foreign artists are now buying the empty houses and local craftsmen are starting to reopen the local products shops, thus creating a welcoming environment. Every summer it hosts the traveling festival Paleariza, one of the most important of the southern Italian Greek culture on the international scene, and between August and September, the Pentedattilo Film Festival, the international short film festival.Not too far are situated Melito di Porto Salvo, in the province of Reggio Calabria, where Garibaldi’s Thousand rested after landing on the coast and, despite themselves, were hit with cannon balls; and in the province of Cosenza, the town of Diamante, seat of the Italian chili pepper Academy, better known as the city of the murals or “pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea” (as it was defined by D’Annunzio). There are over 150 works of art on the walls of the city center and of the hamlet of Cirella, painted since 1981 by internationally renowned painters and artists, a peculiarity that makes of Diamante the largest outdoor museum in Italy and one of the largest in the world.Beyond the beautiful landscapes and cultural sights, Calabria conceals a human heritage of great value, made of century old traditions and crafts, living culture that has always been handed down. Longobucco, in the province of Cosenza, is the city of silver and looms, the ancient Temesa of Magna Graecia. Here, between a dinner at the "Trattoria da Maria" and a visit at the permanent exhibition of textiles, you can relish the more genuine and less aristocratic Calabria, and the same atmosphere is shared by San Giovanni in Fiore and Pietrapaola, also in the province of Cosenza, or by Serra San Bruno and Filadelfia, in the province of Vibo Valentia.Not to mention the Riace Bronzes in the museum of Reggio (www.bronzidiriace.org); in short, there is a whole region to discover, able to satisfy naturalists and intellectuals, gourmands and lazy persons, skiers and sea lovers. To visit it means to explore the wildest and most unspoiled part of Italy: a privilege that every tourist should allow himself at least once in his life.